The Women of Rushmore By Barbara Muth - Mountains of History 2.0

The Women of Rushmore
By Barbara Muth
Standing at the foot of Mt. Rushmore one is taken with the incredible feat that was
created at this site. Many people marvel at the sculpture and question how such an
accomplishment was achieved. A visit to the bookshop there and to any library will
provide a wealth of material to answer the question, how the men around Rushmore were
able to complete the monument that we now view and honor. This was a decidedly male
world and the focus for much of the writing is the things done by the men in the forefront.
Like Mt. Rushmore itself, the men take the center stage and draw the attention and
immediate focus to themselves. However, there were others, particularly the women
behind these men, who cannot be ignored. They complete the picture. They, like the
surrounding hills, add to and make the wonder of this monument a finished work of art.
Who were some of these women, what were they like, and how did they add to the tapestry
of the hills and Mt. Rushmore?
Mary Montgomery Borglum
Mary Montgomery Borglum is best known as the wife of Gutzon Borglum, the
sculpture of Mt. Rushmore. However she was a woman who stood apart in her own right.
Paul Higbee in his article “The Woman Behind Rushmore” gave a list of descriptors that all
add to the picture of who she really was: “scholar, citizen of the world, New York
businesswoman, suffragette, writer, and the family’s financial brains.” 1 Mary was born to
American Missionaries in 1874 in Turkey. She knew various languages and would later
1 Paul Higbee, “The Woman Behind Rushmore.” South Dakota Magazine, May-June 2001: 1.
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attend graduate school at Berlin University. She was one of the first women to get her Ph.D.
in Oriental language, from that institution, which was an additional challenge since all the
courses were taught in German. 2
It was while she was sailing back to America in 1901 that she met Gutzon Borglum.
There was an attraction that developed between them during their voyage. As her
granddaughter later said, “He was so different from the people she grew up with.” 3 He was
drawn to her intelligence and ability to engage him in debate, “…no matter what Gutzon
chose to argue about, she could hold her own.” 4 Mary at first worked as secretary to
Borglum, but then in May of 1909 they were married. Mary wrote of that day, “Here begins
the new life…” 5
Mary probably had no vision of what that ‘new life’ would be like. A hint of that was
their honeymoon of two weeks spent camping in Canada, followed by additional camping
and fishing trips in the United States. They moved to various places throughout their
marriage, with widely different degrees of comfort. They moved from a modest New York
studio, to their Stamford house on Borgland, near Stamford, Connecticut, and then for a
time in North Carolina and Texas waiting for the controversy over Stone Mountain to cool
down. In an interview in 1998 Mary Ellis, Borglum’s daughter recalls the Texas move as
unsettling, but went on to remark that they really didn’t know the true nature of all that
was going on because they “…were a close family…they still had a mother and father, we
2 Higbee, “Woman,” 1.
3 Higbee, “Woman,” 1.
4 William Price, Gutzon Borglum: Artist and Patriot. (Chicago, New York, San Francisco: Rand McNally &
Company, 1961), 51.
5 Price, Gutzon Borglum, 84.
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had the four of us.” 6 Once Gutzon got to South Dakota and had Mary and the children join
him they found themselves living in “…a primitive cabin…which was little more than a
shack, (with) the most meager equipment. Water had to be carried from a block away.” 7
They later did establish residence on a ranch near Hermosa. 8 9
Throughout their years together Mary supported Gutzon in numerous ways. She
continues to act as his secretary and on occasions took care of details surrounding various
projects that were an annoyance to him. It was she, for example, that took care of making
the shipping arrangements for the return of some bronze casts from Italy, a difficult task at
the very least. She was also the one who managed the family’s finances, another daunting
task in the face of Gutzon’s attitude towards spending, according to Mary Ellis “…that was
where Mother would come in, because Mother would make all things possible. I don’t
know how she did it, but she did.” 10 In a later interview Mary Ellis also remarked that one
of the things her mother did was “…learn to drive a car, Dad was a horrible driver.” 11
Perhaps Mary’s greatest support came in devotion to Gutzon and her open defense of him
both during his life time and after his death. She later went on to co-author a book, Give the
Man Room, with that purpose. 12
6 Ryan Phillips, Mt. Rushmore-The Women Behind the Carving. April 15, 2007, Teacher Tube.
www.teachertube.com (accessed April 4, 2009).
7 Price, Gutzon Borglum, 153.
8 Higbee, “Woman,” 3.
9 Rex Alan Smith, The Carving of Mount Rushmore. (New York: Abbeyville Press Publishers, 1985).
10 Higbee, “Woman,” 2.
11 Phillips, Mt. Rushmore: The Women Behind the Carving.
12 Higbee, “Woman,” 4.
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Mary Ellis Borglum
Mary Ellis was born to Gutzon and Mary in 1916, just months before the formal
dedication of Stone Mountain project in Georgia. She grew up in the years of Gutzom’s
grand plans and projects. They were a close family and did not like being apart. Whenever
circumstances made it that they were not together, written communication continued to
keep them close. Throughout all the family’s moves Mary Ellis and her brother, Lincoln, did
not miss out on their education. Whether they were at boarding school, being privately
tutored at home, or learning from their father as he took them with him in his travels, they
learned a great deal. 13 14 15
Mary and her brother began supporting their father’s projects at an early age. In
1928, Borglum found he was unable to go to Poland to make arrangements for the carving
of a requested statue and so sent Mary and Lincoln instead. 16
After her father’s death and what appeared to be the ending of any further work at
Mt. Rushmore, Mary, along with the Mt. Rushmore Historical Society continued the effort of
getting the Hall of Records, located behind the faces, completed. Although not in the full
form envisioned by Borglum himself, they were successful in getting a cache of documents
sealed at that site in 1998. Mary would say that “…it was the end…of her father’s dream.” It
was an important moment for her, as she had wanted to see that part of the project also
completed. 17
13 Price, Gutzon Borglum.
14 Higbee, “Woman,” 3.
15 Phillips, The Woman Behind the Carving.
16 Smith, Carving, 175.
17 Phillips, The Woman Behind the Carving.
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Ethel Winnie Boland
Ethel Boland was the wife of John Boland, a local implement dealer, who was one of
the main forces behind the Rushmore project. As a member of the Mount Rushmore
National Memorial Commission he was seen as a friend and supporter by Borglum and then
later as an enemy. In this later frame of mind, Borglum was eventually responsible for
pushing Boland off of the Commission. Ethel is remembered by her grandson as a “small,
petite and very pretty girl…who always had a smile, like (his) grandfather.” 18 According to
her grandson, Ethel did not have any direct connection with the business; however she did
accompany him to Washington and Pierre during his travels to gain support for the
Rushmore project. 19
Ethel was very social and one of her many friends was Mary Borglum. Ethel and
Mary continued to be friends and communicate with one another no matter what was
happening between their husbands. It was the largely due to these two former school
teacher’s who “…regarded their husbands’ feuding as a ridiculous scrap between two
grown-up little boys in a schoolyard,…” 20 , that the two men were able to reconcile their
differences. 21
Ethel did a lot for the Rapid City Community. She worked with the Native
Americans through the Episcopal Church in North Rapid. Her grandson, John, recalls how
18 John Boland, Interview by author, Knollwood Elementary, April 16, 2009.
19 Boland interview.
20 Smith, Carving, 377.
21 Boland interview.
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at her funeral “…one of her old friends came and placed an eagle feather in the casket….she
wouldn’t leave until the casket was close….” making sure that it was not taken. 22
Lydia Norbeck
In 1900, Peter Norbeck, then a successful well-driller and then later a political
leader who was a key figure in the support of the Mt. Rushmore project, married the
attractive Lydia Anderson. The early years of their marriage were not easy for Lydia as she
was left alone much of the time on Peter’s homestead. These absences were made even
more difficult as he would be gone for as much as two weeks at a time without sending her
even a letter. 23 This pattern of distance between him and his family continued, as he left the
raising of their four children to Lydia. “She was content with this responsibility, since it left
her husband free to devote his time and energy to business and other activities.” 24
Lydia joined her husband more as he entered the political arena and found
themselves in Pierre after his election to governor in 1916. She became more outspoken
after that time and actually “strongly opposed” her husband’s support of Hiram Johnson in
his campaign against Calvin Coolidge. Norbeck was quoted as saying, “My good wife
lectures me nearly every day for not staying with the President, in who she believes so
firmly…” 25
22 Boland interview.
23 Gilbert Courtland Fite, Peter Norbeck: Prairie Statesman (Columbia: University of Missouri, 1948), 22.
24 Fite, Peter Norbeck, 26.
25 Fite, Peter Norbeck, 114-115.
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After Norbeck’s election as senator from South Dakota, Lydia spent a great deal of
time entertaining friends in her home in Washington, D.C. She also was a devoted church
worker there, as she had been in South Dakota. 26
The Carvers’ Wives
It is difficult to find actual accounts of what daily life was like for the wives of the
crew who went daily to Mt. Rushmore, to risk their lives to bring about this incredible
sculpture. Since the carvers’ day began early and then ended with them returning home
dirty, tired and hungry, we can assume that the women spent much of their day taking care
of those things that would provide for the needs of their husbands. Modern appliances
were not available and thus laundry, cleaning, and cooking were time consuming activities.
In his book, The Carving of Mt. Rushmore, Rex Alan Smith does paint a picture of a summer
evening where “…on darkened porches the firefly glow of cigarettes punctuates murmured
conversations as families visit among themselves or with friends.” 27
There are two contrasting accounts of how particular wives responded to the
situation. The first was when Red and Dorothy Anderson were offered an abandoned
house that was in total disrepair. If they were to fix it up, they could rent it for $5 a month.
This was their memory of that place: “Well, we rustled up scrap lumber and some old
packing cases and stuff and fixed it up to be a right comfortable place. We spent several
happy years in it, and we sure couldn’t complain about the rent!” 28
26 Fite, Peter Norbeck, 153.
27 Smith, Carving, 265.
28 Smith, Carving, 258.
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On the other hand, Luigi Del Bianco, chief carver, brought his wife and three boys
from New York one season. The house they had did not have indoor plumbing and Mrs.
Bianco was unable to find the necessary ingredients for the family’s favorite Italian dishes.
The family never returned for another season, even though Luigi worked nine seasons at
Mount Rushmore. 29 However, there were women who stayed and helped raise their
families despite the hardships of the time.
Conclusion
As we look at what happened at Mt. Rushmore, and history in general, it is most
often the men who stood in the forefront. Even though they are the ones that were most
prominent to each event, it is important to remember that without the people around them,
most often their wives, they might not have accomplished the things they did. Taking a
look at the people behind the men can broadened our understanding of them and their
accomplishments.
29 “Rushmore Carvers,” Keystone Area Historical Society,
http://www.keystonechamber.com/kahs/carvers.html.
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Primary Sources
Bibliography
Boland, John. Interview by author, Knollwood Elementary, April 16, 2009.
Phillips, Ryan. Two Women Behind the Carving. April 15, 2007. Teacher Tube.
www.teachertube.com (accessed April 4, 2009).
Secondary Sources
Fite, Gilbert Courtland. Peter Norbeck: Prairie Statesman. Columbia: University of Missouri,
1948.
Higbee, Paul. “The Woman Behind Rushmore.” South Dakota Magazine, May-June 2001.
Price, William. Gutzon Borglum: Artist and Patriot. Chicago, New York, San Francisco: Rand
McNally & Company, 1961.
“Rushmore Carvers.” Keystone Area Historical Society.
http://www.keystonechamber.com/kah/carvers.html (accessed June 20, 2009).
Smith, Rex Alan. The Carving of Mount Rushmore. New York: Abbeville Press Publishers,
1985.
Zeitner, June Culp, and Lincoln Borglum. Borglum’s Unfinished Dream Mount Rushmore.
Aberdeen: North Plains Press, 1976.
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